Citizens from the European Union (EU) member states who are currently living in the UK and who wish to stay in the country after it leaves the bloc, would from Monday be able to apply for a scheme allowing them to do so, according to the British government.

The Home Office has opened the process up to some 3.8 million EU citizens residing in the UK, who would be able to submit their applications online or through a phone app, reports Efe news.

"If you're an EU citizen, you and your family will be able to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme to continue living in the UK after 30 June 2021," a statement on the Home Office website said.

The UK is set to leave the EU on March 29, but EU citizens have until June 30, 2021, to apply for the scheme, which costs applicants 65 pounds ($83) for those aged 16 years and over and 32.50 pounds for under 16s.

EU citizens in the UK who already have a permanent residency document will need to apply for settled status and would not be required to pay the fee.

Irish citizens would not need to apply owing to an agreement known as the Common Travel Area, which was established in 1923.

Citizens from beyond the EU who are married, in a civil union or partnership with an EU citizen, would have to apply for settled status.

EU citizens who are married to a British citizen but have not taken British citizenship would also have to apply.

The UK government has said it will give indefinite permanent residence to EU citizens and family members who have lived in the UK for five years until June 2021.

Those who do not meet the five-year threshold would be given "pre-settled" status until they have accumulated five years living in the UK to become "settled".

There was uncertainty surrounding the terms of the UK's withdrawal from the bloc on schedule after UK lawmakers roundly rejected the deal reached between the government of Prime Minister Theresa May and the EU on January 15.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May is set to present her Brexit Plan-B on Monday in a desperate attempt to overturn last week's humiliating Commons defeat and convince Tory Brexiteers to support her withdrawal deal with the EU.

May will address the House of Commons, explaining how she intends to proceed and achieve a majority for her Brexit withdrawal agreement. She will also hold talks with MPs, business leaders and trade unionists in order to find a way forward, the BBC reported.

There were reports that she could fly out to Brussels for talks later in the evening.

The Prime Minister, in her address, will focus on winning over Tory Brexiteers and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), a right-wing unionist party from Northern Ireland and ally of the Conservative government, by pressing for changes on the controversial Northern Ireland backstop.

The backstop is the "insurance policy" in the withdrawal deal, intended to ensure that whatever else happens, there will be no return to a physical border between Northern Ireland (a UK territory) and the Irish Republic (an EU member state) after the UK leaves the EU.

Both the UK and the EU believe that bringing back border checks could put the peace process at risk, but a way of avoiding those checks has yet to win over MPs.

May had earlier pointed to assurances from the EU that the backstop would only be temporary and, if triggered, would last for "the shortest possible period".

Her government agreed a withdrawal deal with the EU in November -- covering topics such as the "divorce bill" and the Irish border -- but it was rejected by MPs by a majority of 230 votes. Later, May narrowly survived a no-confidence motion.

If Parliament doesn't approve a withdrawal agreement, the UK is due to leave the EU on March 29 without a deal or transition period.

The Prime Minister on Monday will also table a "neutral" motion, saying that the Commons considered her statement, which will be debated and voted upon on January 29.

This motion was expected to attract amendments from groups of backbenchers seeking more of a say in the process.

May had invited opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn to cross-party talks on Brexit after she survived the no-trust vote last week. But he said he would only enter cross-party talks if she took the possibility of a no-deal Brexit off the table.

Labour's position since May's withdrawal agreement was rejected by the Commons is to seek a general election -- if that fails they would consider backing a second referendum, the BBC said.

Corbyn previously said Labour wanted a customs union with the EU, tariff-free access to the single market and an EU-level of employment rights to be included in any Brexit agreement.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan will embark on a two-day visit to Qatar from Monday at the invitation of the country's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.

Khan was expected to hold meetings with the Qatari Emir and Prime Minister to discuss matters of mutual interest. He will also discuss the matter of exporting manpower to Qatar, Radio Pakistan reported.

In December, Qatar opened a visa facilitation centre in Islamabad for swift processing of visas of members of the Pakistan workforce wishing to work in Qatar.

Doha had also promised 100,000 jobs for Pakistani workers and Islamabad was in talks with the Qatari government to adjust skilled members of the labour force returning from Saudi Arabia, the report said.

A book written by a former White House staffer has described back-stabbing and duplicity within the West Wing and claimed that it was "out of control".

"Team of Vipers", written by by Cliff Sims, a former communications staff member and a President Donald Trump loyalist who worked on his campaign, is slated to be published at the end of January, reports The New York Times.

Sims has written about White House inside stories like John Kelly, while was the White House Chief of Staff, presented himself as the man leading a charge of "country first, President second"; the attorney general suggested administering lie-detector tests to the small group of people with access to transcripts of the President's calls with foreign leaders; and Trump sought a list of "enemies" working in the White House communications shop.

Sims left the administration last year after clashing with Kelly.

"It's impossible to deny how absolutely out of control the White House staff - again, myself included - was at times," he wrote in his book.

According to Sims, Trump was unsettled by the condition of the West Wing, which he found dilapidated.

The President delighted in giving tours of the Oval Office, down to the private bathroom and the small study he converted to a dining room with a television on the wall. He explained in detail to aides how important the chyrons on television are, because so many people consume programs muted, according to the book.

The book however, does not always present the President in a negative light, The New York Times reported.

Its descriptions of Trump and the First Lady, Melania Trump, defy the public perception of their marriage.

But Sims does describe painfully awkward interactions with Paul D. Ryan, the former House Speaker, during efforts to repeal the health care law and after the Charlottesville white nationalist riots.

Despite President Donald Trump's offer to end the ongoing partial government shutdown and fund a border wall in exchange for temporary protections for groups of immigrants, Democrats stood by their demand to reopen the government before negotiating about the border.

"Let's not hold the American people, especially the federal workers, hostage to these negotiations," South Carolina Representative Jim Clyburn, a member of Democratic leadership, told Fox News on Sunday.

"And hopefully we will open with what he has put on the table, and let's go back and forth on this and see where we can find common ground."

The Democratic rejection came as Vice President Mike Pence made clear on Sunday that the Republicans intended to go forward with the plan the President outlined on Saturday during a 13-minute televised speech from the White House, CNN reported.

Trump has suggested extending protections for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme recipients for three years and a three-year extension of protections for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders.

The shutdown that began on December 22, has left roughly a quarter of the government closed and forcing 800,000 federal employees furloughed or work without pay.

But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected it even before Trump spoke. On Sunday, the President took to Twitter to slam Pelosi for rejecting his deal.

"Nancy Pelosi and some of the Democrats turned down my offer yesterday (Saturday) before I even got up to speak. They don't see crime and drugs, they only see 2020 - which they are not going to win. Best economy! They should do the right thing for the country and allow people to go back to work.

"No, Amnesty is not a part of my offer. It is a three year extension of DACA. Amnesty will be used only on a much bigger deal, whether on immigration or something else. Likewise there will be no big push to remove the 11,000,000 plus people who are here illegally-but be careful Nancy," he said in a series of tweets.

Some other Democrat leaders have also slammed the President's offer.

New York Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who entered the 2020 race just days ago, told CNN on Sunday that Trump's offer of only temporary protection from deportation showed he "has no empathy" for people affected by the decision.

Virginia Democratic Senator Mark Warner said Democrats should not "reward the kind of behaviour of hostage-taking".

Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard, meanwhile, told CNN that "both sides" were responsible for the ongoing impasse and called for genuine negotiations.

The death toll from a devastating oil pipeline blast in Mexico has increased to 79, Minister of Public Health Jorge Alcocer said on Sunday.

"There are still patients (at least 81) who sustained serious injuries, with burns of more than 80 per cent," he said in a press conference, accompanied by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Xinhua news agency reported.

Lopez Obrador, who took office on December 1, said his government will not back down on the measures that have been undertaken since the end of last year to fight against fuel theft.

"We are not going to give up, and I offer to the people apologies if this action causes sacrifices, damages and inconveniences," he said.

"We have to do it... Mexico needs to end corruption and it is not negotiable," he added.

According to the latest figures from the government, fuel theft cost the country some $3 billion in 2018.

The explosion and ensuing blaze occurred at a pipeline spot in Tlahuelilpan town on Friday evening.

The accident is one of the worst tragedies caused by pipeline explosions in Mexico in recent years.

US President Donald Trump has spoken over phone with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the ongoing tension in Syria, and bilateral ties, said the White House.

The two leaders "agreed to continue to pursue a negotiated solution for Syria that achieves our respective security concerns", said the White House in a statement on Sunday, Xinhua news agency reported.

Trump and Erdogan also discussed "their mutual interest in expanding the trade relationship," the statement added.

The situation in Syria has been volatile in the past weeks following Washington's decision to withdraw troops from the war-torn country and the deaths of four Americans in a bomb attack which the extremist militia Islamic State claimed responsibility for.

Meanwhile, the US and Turkey have also been quarrelling over the Kurdish militia in northern Syria, a US ally in the anti-IS campaign but seen as a terrorist group by Ankara.

Washington has reportedly proposed to set up a security zone in northeastern Syria, a move welcomed by Ankara.

Incumbent Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani on Sunday registered with the Election Commission to contest the presidential poll slated for July 20.

"Our objective is to have a strong government... Only a strong government can overcome the prolonged 40 year-old crisis and can ensure justice in society to stabilise peace and security," the President said in a speech after registering his candidacy.

A total of 14 politicians including Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, former National Security Advisor Mohammad Hanif Atmar and former warlord Gulbudin Hekmatyar are in the fray, reports Xinhua news agency.

Hekmatyar, who was also the country's Prime Minister from 1992 to 1996, is believed to be responsible for the killing of tens of thousands of civilians in Kabul during the 1990s civil war and was nicknamed the "Butcher of Kabul".

A team of researchers has developed a system that produces electricity and hydrogen while eliminating carbon dioxide (CO2), which is the main contributor of global warming.

The team from the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea created a "Hybrid Na-CO2" system that can continuously produce electrical energy and hydrogen through efficient CO2 conversion, with stable operation for over 1,000 hour without any damage to electrodes.

"The key to that technology is the easy conversion of chemically stable CO2 molecules to other materials. Our new system has solved this problem with CO2 dissolution mechanism," said Professor Guntae Kim from the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering at UNIST.

Much of human CO2 emissions are absorbed by the ocean and turned into acidity.

The researchers focused on this phenomenon and came up with the idea of melting CO2 into water to induce an electrochemical reaction.

If acidity increases, the number of protons increases, which in turn increases the power to attract electrons.

If a battery system is created based on this phenomenon, electricity can be produced by removing CO2.

With the "Hybrid Na-CO2" System, the conversion efficiency of CO2 is high at 50 per cent at this time.

"This hybrid Na-CO2 cell not only utilises CO2 as the resource for generating electrical energy but also produces the clean energy source, hydrogen," said Jeongwon Kim from UNIST in a paper published in the journal iScience.